For you, Tommy, the dole is German

IN THE 1980s it was Auf Wiedersehen, Pet as we exported construction workers
to Germany. Now we have given them thousands of unemployed Britons who are
pocketing generous benefit payments after moving there.

According to official figures, more than 10,000 British citizens — about
one-tenth of the total expat population — receive unemployment benefit of up
to £23,318 a year subsidised by German taxpayers. More than 90% of them have
been deemed fit to work.

Last week some of the claimants — most of whom either travelled abroad in
search of work or lost their jobs after arriving — said that given the lower
cost of living in Germany, the payments were worth more than those handed
out in Britain. As for the often-repeated demand in the UK that people
coming here should integrate, it appears that the British in Germany do not
bother with that. Some admitted that they were not able to